A Room of My Own: Yet Again

black neighborhood
patrol cars rattling
clouds of dust

noonday silence ...
rows and rows of policemen,
hooded youth

Note: The haiku set, Yet Again,  is a sequel poem to the following tanka set, Bitter Place and Broken Dream, which was first published in Atlas Poetica, 21, 2015:

our skin
is the scarlet letter
lingering
on this chilly night
a man with his hands up

columns of smoke
from a commercial strip
the banner
Black Lives Matter
stained with mud and blood

Butterfly Dream: Willow Haiku by Julie Warther

English Original

new moon --
a willow lashes out
at the storm

Editor’s Choice, Cattails, September 2015

Julie Warther


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

新月 --
一棵楊柳鞭打
暴風雨
   
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

新月 --
一棵杨柳鞭打
暴风雨


Bio Sketch

Julie Warther is the author of What Was Here (Folded Word Press 2015) and serves as the Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America.

NeverEnding Story: Call for Tanka Submissions

A haiku or a tanka without "rhetoric" was likely to be no more  than a brief observation without poetic tension or illumination.
-- Donald Keene, The Winter Sun Shines in: A Life of Masaoka Shiki, p 57.

My Dear Friends:

Send your best published tanka (please provide publication credits) or new work and a bio sketch (50 words max.). No more than twenty tanka per submission and no simultaneous submissions. Please note that only those whose tanka are accepted will be notified within three weeks, and that no other notification will be sent out. For more information about submissions, see 2016 anthology submission guidelines for tanka .

Look forward to reading your work

Happy Writing!

Chen-ou

Note:  For information about the effective use of rhetorical devices, see my "To the Lighthouse" posts on Utamakura (Poetic Place Names), Parallelism, Oxymoron, Hyperbole, Wordplay, Defamiliarization, Synaesthesia, Repetition, and Inversion  or  my "Poet and Tanka" essay, which was first published in Ribbons, 12:2, Spring/Summer 2016.  And for information about the effective use of punctuation, see my "To the Lighthouse" post, titled Strategic Placement of Punctuation Marks.

Butterfly Dream: Lights and Snowflakes Haiku by Agnes Eva Savich

English Original

lights out
one by one
snowflakes fall

Acorn, 12, Spring 2004

Agnes Eva Savich


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

熄燈
一個接一個
雪花飄落

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

熄灯
一个接一个
雪花飘落


Bio Sketch

Agnes Eva Savich has been writing haiku since 2003. She was a featured Southwestern haijin in Roadrunner in 2006. She has published a collection of early poetry, titled The Watcher: Poems (Cedar Leaf Press, 2009) and hopes to work on her first haiku book soon. She now lives in Austin, TX.

One Man's Maple Moon: Mirror Tanka by Shloka Shankar

English Original

these eyes
staring back from the mirror
no longer mine...
when did I start living
in denial?

Chrysanthemum, October 2014

Shloka Shankar


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

從鏡子裡
回瞪的這些眼睛
不再是我的 ...
什麼時候我開始生活
在否認之中？ 

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

从镜子里
回瞪的这些眼睛
不再是我的 ...
什麽时候我开始生活
在否认之中？


Bio Sketch

Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer residing in India. Her work appears in over two dozen international anthologies. Her poems, erasures, haiku, haiga and tanka have appeared in numerous print and online journals. She is also the editor of the literary and arts journal, Sonic Boom

Butterfly Dream: Harvest Moon Haiku by Debbie Strange

English Original

in cupped hands
the harvest moon rests
for a moment

First Place, Autumn Moon Haiku Contest, 2015

Debbie Strange 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

雙手捧著
中秋月亮
一會兒

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

双手捧著
中秋月亮
一会儿 


Bio Sketch

Debbie Strange is a Canadian short form poet and haiga artist. You are invited to view her published work at www.debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca and www.twitter.com/Debbie_Strange. Keibooks recently released her first collection, Warp and Weft, Tanka Threads, available through www.createspace.com/5520311 and at www.amazon.ca among others.

One Man's Maple Moon: War Tanka by Keitha Keyes

English Original

this war ...
what colour
are the shadows
of guns
or the tears of a widow?
 
Moonbathing, 11, Fall/Winter 2014

Keitha Keyes

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

此場戰爭 ...
槍桿
的影子
或是寡婦的眼淚
是什麼顏色？

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

此场战争 ...
枪桿
的影子
或是寡妇的眼泪
是什麽颜色？


Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in Sydney but her heart is still in the Australian bush where she grew up. She mostly writes tanka and related genres, revelling in the inspiration, friendship and generosity of these writing communities. Her work appears in many print and online journals and anthologies.

Butterfly Dream: Canyon Stream Haiku by Jane Reichhold

English Original

canyon stream
dried to a slit
of clear sky

A Dictionary of Haiku, 2013

Jane Reichhold


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

峽谷溪水
乾旱成一條裂縫
的晴朗天空

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

峡谷溪水
乾旱成一条裂缝
的晴朗天空


Bio Sketch

Jane Reichhold was born as Janet Styer in 1937 in Lima , Ohio , USA . She had published over thirty books of haiku, renga, tanka, and translations. Her latest tanka book, Taking Tanka Home was translated into Japanese by Aya Yuhki. Her most popular book is Basho The Complete Haiku by Kodansha International. As founder and editor of AHA Books, Jane also published Mirrors: International Haiku Forum, Geppo, for the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, and she had co-edited with Werner Reichhold, Lynx for Linking Poets since 1992. Lynx went online in 2000 in AHApoetry.com the web site Jane started in 1995. Since 2006 she had maintained an online forum – AHAforum

A Room of My Own: The Eternal Stranger?

fireworks show
the migrant speaks of the home
he left behind

no more migrants!
not a breath
of summer breeze

One Man's Maple Moon: Childhood Church Tanka by Thomas Martin

English Original

stained glass windows
of my childhood church
in storage ...
another reason
not to go home

Thomas Martin


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我童年教堂
的彩色玻璃窗
已放入儲藏室 ...
這是另一個原因
我不回家

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我童年教堂
的彩色玻璃窗
已放入储藏室 ...
这是另一个原因
我不回家


Bio Sketch

Thomas Martin was raised on a farm in the Piedmont of North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina.He has been writing poetry since his teen years, though haiku and tanka only since 2000.  He lives with his beautiful spouse, Joyce, in Beaverton, OR, USA

Butterfly Dream: Autumn Wind Haiku by Anna Maris

English Original

autumn wind
the yellowing leaves
of a diary

Shamrock, 30, 2015

Anna Maris


Chinese Translation (Traditional)
   
秋天微風
頁面泛黃的
日記本

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

秋天微风
页面泛黄的
日记本 


Bio Sketch

Anna Maris is a Swedish haiku poet. Her bi-lingual poetry collection Lifedeathetc/Livdödetc (2016) is published by Red Moon Press. She also has two collections in Swedish: Transport (2015) and Skiftningar (2013) and appears in over 20 anthologies. Anna is an editor of Blåeld, the journal of the Swedish haiku society. http://annamaris.wordpress.com

One Man's Maple Moon: Whiff of Jasmine Tanka by Archana Kapoor Nagpal

English Original

this morning
whiff of jasmine
in my room --
amid my silence
his last words still echo

The Bamboo Hut, 2:1, 2014

Archana Kapoor Nagpal


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

今天早上
我的房間裡
有一股茉莉花香味 --
在我的沉默之際
他最後話語仍在迴響

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

今天早上
我的房间里
有一股茉莉花香味 --
在我的沉默之际
他最後话语仍在迴响 


Bio Sketch

Archana Kapoor Nagpal is an internationally published author of 7 books, including  14 Pearls of Inspiration, The Road to a Positive Life, The Fragrance of a Beautiful Life, A Pinch of Love, Peace and Humanity, New Love: Anthology of Short Stories and the 12 Facets of a Crystal.

Butterfly Dream: Tadpoles Haiku by Ken Sawitri

English Original

end of summer rain
the childless couple's pond
full of tadpoles

A Hundred Gourds, 4:1, December 2014

Ken Sawitri


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

夏雨停了
無子女夫婦的池塘
滿是蝌蚪

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

夏雨停了
无子女夫妇的池塘
满是蝌蚪 


Bio Sketch

Ken Sawitri completed her degree in psychology at the University of Indonesia in 1993. Her haiku won the Second Prize in the 2013 Diogen Summer Haiku Contest. She dedicated her haiku to her motherland  in Listen The Spice Whispers, Haiku from Indonesian Archipelago and recorded her journey in the haiku posted at http://thisissawitri.blogspot.com

Butterfly Dream: Highway Bypass Haiku by Keitha Keyes

English Original

highway bypass
another country town
crumbles into dust

paper wasp, summer 2014

Keitha Keyes


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

高速公路旁路
另一個鄉村小鎮
坍塌成為塵土

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

高速公路旁路
另一个乡村小镇
坍塌成为尘土 


Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in Sydney but her heart is still in the Australian bush where she grew up. She mostly writes tanka and related genres, revelling in the inspiration, friendship and generosity of these writing communities. Her work appears in many print and online journals and anthologies.

One Man's Maple Moon: Honking Geese Tanka by Tim Gardiner

English Original

honking geese
pass over rooftops
same time each evening --
such loneliness
in close formations

Blithe Spirit, 25:1, 2015

Tim Gardiner


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

每晚同時間
一群鵝飛越屋頂
高聲鳴叫 --
在緊密相連的群體中
這種孤寂感

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

每晚同时间
一群鹅飞越屋顶
高声鸣叫 --
在紧密相连的群体中
这种孤寂感 


Bio Sketch

Dr Tim Gardiner is an ecologist and poet from Manningtree in Essex, UK. His haiku and tanka have been published in literary magazines including Blithe Spirit, Frogpond, and Presence. His first collection of poetry, Wilderness, was published by Brambleby Books in 2015. He has published many scientific papers on natural history and several books, including one about glow-worms.